Hen Galan and the Mari Llwyd

Hello Friends!

I am putting this up a day early to give you a chance to read it before tomorrow.

It seems that Pembrokeshire is becoming quite the place to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. According to Tripadvisor, St David's is one of the best places in the whole of the United Kingdom for Father Christmas to come and visit for we have some of the best proper working chimneys in the country, which means Father Christmas doesn't encounter problems over access as he does his parcel dropping rounds on Christmas Eve.

Several places in Pembrokeshire host New Year's Day charity swims, which attract many people to don their peculiar fancy dress swimming costumes and take a quick dip in the chilly sea to raise funds for different charities. Two particularly famous ones now are held in Saundersfoot and Tenby, with lots of smaller ones dotted around the coastline.

Fishguard is in the top 20 places in the United Kingdom to celebrate New Year's Eve with their mahoosive street party on the square.

And the celebrations don't stop until the middle of January when one small village celebrates Welsh New Year's Day, or as it is known, Hen Galan, on the thirteenth day of January.

Cwm Gwaun is a beautiful, picturesque, small valley to the east of Fishguard in north Pembrokeshire and they celebrate New Year's Day on January 13th, two weeks after everyone else.  They aren't two weeks late, they just celebrate on the old Julian calendar which was abolished in 1752 when it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar {still in use today}.  However, the people of Cwm Gwaun resisted the change which is why to this day the children of Cwm Gwaun get the day off school to go from door to door singing in exchange for sweets and money.

A traditional verse such as this is sung at each door:

Blwyddyn Newydd dda i chi / A happy new year to you

Ac i bawb sydd yn y tŷ / And to everyone in the house

Dyma fy nymuniad i / This is my wish

Blwyddyn Newydd dda i chi / A happy new year to you

Another seasonal tradition which occurs between Christmas and Twelfth Night is the Mari Llwyd or Grey Mare. A horse's skull on a pole is decorated with greenery and ribbons, and paraded around the village, this time by adults, going in and out of houses, accompanied by singers or wassailers who traditionally exchange "pwnco" or rude rhymes with the residents. If successful entry is gained, the household is guaranteed to have good luck in the coming year.

You can read a lot more about the history and possible origins of the Mari Llwyd HERE

Until next time
Debbie

photos from the archive of the National Museum of Wales 

Best Comedy Award . . . Goes To . . .

SPOILER ALERT!!!

MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN GAVIN AND STACEY THE FINALE

Hello Friends!

We all love a good giggle, and in my opinion this is one of the best . . . from the Gavin and Stacey The Finale Christmas 2024 . . . 

Best Comedy Moment Ever {since Del Boy fell through the bar at the Nag's Head} . . .
         . . . when two random extras also unexpectedly stand up . . .

Apparently, these two ladies, guests on the Bride's side, are extras who are huge Gavin and Stacey fans, opposed to the wedding in reality, and so they stood up, unscripted, when the celebrant suggested anyone who thought the marriage was a bad idea should stand up.  It was so unexpected and so funny that the producers decided to leave it in.

Until next time

Debbie xx

The Shipping Forecast Part Two

Hello Friends!

I hope you are keeping warm as our temperatures plummet.  I have made the executive decision to dip into my savings in order to supplement paying my heating bill when it comes in, for I cannot be cold.  I shall worry about it later, but for now the thermostat is up and the living room also has an oil filled radiator in use and a plug in heated blanket over me!

After I shared about the Shipping Forecast in my last blog entry, I came across this.  So for your jollification and amusement, here is the alternative Shipping Forecast read by 

Brian Perkins

Enjoy!

Until next time

Debbie

The Shipping Forecast

Hello Friends!

THE SHIPPING FORECAST

The Shipping Forecast .  Always there, ever since my childhood days, steadfast and reliable. This year, it celebrates its 100th birthday.  100 years of being there for those in peril on the sea and hopefully guiding them into safer, calmer waters when maritime weather turns bad.

Although I don't think of it this way, I do actually live on an island. I am an islander. for no one can deny that the United Kingdom is completely surrounded by water and therefore by definition is an island. And when you live on an island, your life is very often governed by the sea. Certainly more so in days gone by than it is today when the sea was a main way of transporting goods and travelling.. As the crow flies my cottage is about half a mile at the nearest point from the sea. I can see the sea from my garden. Although a carpenter by trade my father always owned a small boat and we ate a constant diet of fresh fish and shellfish.  Nothing better than fish freshly caught!. And in later years, he came off the tools and went into boating full time when we ran a successful day trip boating business during the tourist season. During the winter he fished, .and for anyone who plies the waters, the shipping forecast is required listening.

The music of the Shipping Forecast is instantly recognisable. It will be the last music I hear as I leave this mortal coil.

Music Maestro please!

Contrary to popular belief, it is not a singularly British thing!  You can read more about the British Shipping Forecast HERE but there are shipping forecasts and regions across the globe. You might even have one where you live so please. share in the comments.

Met Office Map this link will show you the British map.

The distant headland on the right side of this phot. is the point where sea areas Lundy and Irish Sea meet. It is St David's Head. Oftentimes I have bobbed about off St David's Head in our boat with one foot in the Irish Sea and the other foot in Lundy.  Many a delicious supper caught there.  Fresh line caught mackerel. From sea to plate in under two hours.  filleted and dusted in seasoned flour. Pan fried. Wedge of lemon. Slice of brown bread and butter. Food for the gods.

The following link may not be available in your area. However, do click on it and see if it is. Because on January the first, BBC Radio 4. Did a day long special interspersed with lots of information on the shipping forecast. Well worth a listen to.  BBC Radio 4.  Radio 4 is a very good station to listen to during the day.

I hope this nasty cold snap isn't affecting you too badly. It's a bit of a struggle to keep warm. I think that's for most of us. I don't think it is snowed here for at 6:00 AM when I did stick my nose out, there wasn't any sign of anything. It's just blinking cold. I'm afraid I've got my heating on all day now and night with Parkinson's I can't afford to let myself get cold.  I'm cwtched up in my chair under a quilt and a blanket. And I've got the oil filled radiator on next to me.

Until next time.

Stay safe and stay warm.

Debbie. xx

Great Start..{updated}

Hello Friends!

A while back, I discovered that there is a voice activated typing system on the laptop.  I find this very useful, although it isn't perfect. If I don't use it for anything else, it helps me keep my blog going and I can use it for my emails. I was just getting really into the swing of using it when one day I came online and it didn't work. It was really annoying as these days I'm getting bad cramps in my hands so being able to type voice activated is very useful indeed and imagine the frustration at not being able to use the voice activated typing. Well, the other day, I'd had enough of it, so I started to fiddle around in the settings. Lo and behold. I have fixed it.  I don't know how, but it's fixed and I'm happy.

Well, two days into the new year. And we're already off to a good start with the local council. We have three different collection rotations for our household waste and recycling. We have multiple skips and bags that go out weekly for all the things that can be recycled, such as glass, paper, cardboard, tin, etc.  Food waste also goes weekly but other compostable wastes such as garden waste goes out once a fortnight.  Then every three weeks, we get to put out up to three black bags of what is termed residual waste. Household waste that doesn't fit into any of the recycling skips.

The one thing you don't want to do is miss one of the three weekly black bin bag collections. We are allowed one bag of rubbish per house per week and if you missed a three weekly collection. You aren't allowed to put out six on the following collection week. Therefore, it is important to keep on top of what is going on. I used to get text message reminders, but as our Council is hugely in the red, they have. discontinued this service. So last year I started putting colour coded dots on my calendar in my journal. Green for regular recycling. brown for garden waste, and a black dot every three weeks for the black bag. It worked well. I didn't miss a single collection..

Over Christmas and new year. If your weekly collection falls on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day, then your schedule is altered because the council don't work on those days. Fair enough. We get an amended schedule. 

One of the jobs I do over New Year's is to transfer all relevant information. from last year's diary into this year's diary. It was time to fill in the multi coloured dots for the refuse collection. I went onto the local council website. I found the collection calendar. Straight away, I noticed that the. first black bin bag collection, which is due to go on Thursday, the 9th of January is scheduled for Tuesday, the 14th of January. It didn't take me long to work out that the council have put our collection schedule for everything for the entire year. down for Tuesdays instead of Thursdays.

This calendar will have already been printed. thousands of copies to be distributed .What a waste of money and paper. Our services are being cut left, right and centre because the council hasn't got enough money and then they go and make a mistake like this.

This is not how I'd planned to start the New Year blogging with a moan, but it really annoys me when we aren't getting the services that we used to get and then they go and make mistakes like this. I shall be calling them as soon as they open at 9:00 o'clock. I will come back and put an update on what they say.

Until next time.

Debbie.

The council switchboard. Seemed completely nonplussed. To paraphrase what I was told, it must be a technical error, we'll pass it on to the IT Department. 

Fair enough, but who's going to clean up the mess when all the bags are going out on the wrong day?

New Year's Eve

Hello, friends

Today is the last day of 2024. Thank you to everyone who has followed me in the last few months. A special thank you to those of you who have regularly read my blog and left a comment on my wittering. 

I don't know how we got to the end of the year so quickly. I think many of us feel the same. The past 12 months seem to have been accelerated away from us. It is a shame that so many of the outdoor events across the entire country have had to be cancelled because of the storm that is quickly approaching our shores. Our local New Year's Day swim for charity has also been cancelled.  I guess we have to blow the cobwebs of the old year away somehow.

I hope our paths will cross again in 2025. For now, all that remains is for me to say I wish for you all 

A Happy, Healthy New Year 2025.

Advent and Christmas Eve

Hello Friends!

A gentle reminder today that not everyone is merry and bright at this time of the year and that some of us are struggling just to get through each day while those around us, wrapped up in the holly jolly spirit of the season go about their days blissfully unaware of the pain that lies within the hearts of so many. So, be kind to everyone, for you don't know their story.

Everything is as ready as it's going to be now. Shopping is done and in the fridge and freezer. I have already eaten the box of Milk Tray. I did not enjoy it. Either my tastes have changed or they've made a tweak too far. Radio Times has been checked and viewing list made. Presents are exchanged. Cards written but not posted. I will spend the afternoon on the phone.

Wishing you all a Peaceful and Happy Christmas!

Nadolig Llawen i chi gyd.

Until next time